Maine’s transportation system is broken.

If you do not have a car, there is virtually no access to your job, schooling or basic necessities. If you do have a car, its high costs strain your household budget.

The comparison I draw is not some academic hypothetical — they affect your friends, neighbors and family. A grandmother who can no longer drive, a child who does not have a license, a friend who cannot afford a car. Even if you are fortunate enough to not be in this situation, consider your reaction when you shell out hundreds of dollars for new tires, or the dread of your annual inspection.

These stories are not rare. Transportation in Maine is riddled with numerous accessibility issues. A recent report, of which I am a co-author, put these challenges into actual numbers, which exemplifies the striking gap in access. First, approximately 90,000 Maine adults lack a driver’s license. Many are in their 20s, a critical age for accessing employment and educational opportunities. Second, 52,000 Mainers live in households where the number of workers exceeds the number of vehicles. With few alternatives available, this is as good as unreliable.

However, one of the most shocking figures is that 3 in 5 Maine adults experience transportation insecurity. This includes people who find their transportation unreliable, inaccessible and unaffordable.

The findings in the Public Transit Advisory Council report confirm we have a broken transportation system. This is a direct result of failed policy perpetuated by the governor’s administration. Maine Department of Transportation Commissioner Bruce Van Note has made decisions that weaken transportation alternatives and push forward expensive and disastrous projects.

The recent swell in public momentum for meaningful transportation reform serves as a pivotal moment for decision-makers — and they should act upon it.

There are several key areas that would need serious change: fiscal responsibility, agency transparency and robust investment in transportation alternatives. First and foremost, the highway budget faces significant shortfalls, most recently $280 million, which is in large part due to the diminishing role of fuel taxes. The Tax Foundation projects real fuel tax revenues to decline by more than half over the next 20 years.

Overall, 42.6% of Highway Fund revenue comes from fuel taxes, making the future of the fund a pressing concern. The PTAC report highlights several options, such as phasing out fuel taxes in favor of a mileage-based fee, restructuring the income tax and several smaller transit-dedicated revenue sources.

Second, in its stumbling attempts to advance a decades-old proposal for a new toll highway extension to Gorham, the Maine Turnpike Authority has made itself a poster child for nontransparency. Freedom of Information Act requests from journalists, activists and citizens at risk of losing their homes to make way for the highway have documented false claims.

These include:

• Publicly understating the estimated cost of the highway at its public rollout last year by over $100 million.
• Claiming that traffic continues to grow when DOT’s own public data shows traffic counts flat or even falling.
• Withholding the results of a public opinion poll showing more local opposition than support for the highway.
• Failing to disclose the likely historic preservation eligibility of a farm in the route of the highway.

All of these tactics only serve to overstate the necessity and value of a $331 million new highway, while the state DOT claims it doesn’t have the money it needs to maintain the roads we already have.

Finally, MaineDOT has starved transportation alternatives of crucial funding, leaving service providers to fight over a meager pot. For example, Commissioner Van Note has flatlined transit
funding for years, leading to a major gap between the level of service needed and provided.

According to a John T. Gorman Foundation report, 28 million transit trips are needed in Maine, yet only 3 million trips are provided. The state is an underutilized source of funding, currently contributing a mere 2% of total transit funding.

At this crossroads, Maine has a chance to reshape its transportation future. It is time for the public to take action on their angst and tell leaders, like Commissioner Van Note, that it’s time to remake transit in our state.

Copy the Story Link

“As Maine goes, so goes the nation,” was once a maxim in U.S. politics, meaning that it was at one time a bellwether for presidential elections.

Now it risks becoming a backwater in the face of federal budget cuts imposed by President Donald Trump.

And Massachusetts is not far behind. The Maine maxim could soon read, “As Maine goes, so goes Massachusetts” when it comes to similar, but larger, elimination or cutbacks in federal funding.

Another thing in common is that both Gov. Janet Mills of Maine and Gov. Maura Healey are both progressive Democrats who are “standing up” to Trump no matter what it costs their state and the people who live there.

Their stand is a perfect example of self-indulgent politicians putting politics over common sense, particularly when it comes to supporting men in women’s sports, transgender issues, DEI and other looney, left-wing progressive nonsense.

A Maine example of what is in store for Massachusetts was no-nonsense U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s decision last week to pull funding from Maine’s Department of Correction over a man transgendering into a woman being housed in a women’s prison.

The person is serving a 40-year sentence for murdering his/her parents and the family dog.

“We will pull your funding, we will protect women in prison, we will protect women in sports, we will protect women throughout this country,” Bondi said, in reference to Mill’s stubborn defiance of Trump’s mandate banning men from competing in women’s sports.

Things will be worse for Massachusetts because, not only is there is more at stake, but the attacks on Trump have never subsided even after he was elected in 2024 in a solid victory.

In fact, they have gotten worse as Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Attorney General Andrea Campbell in a triple team offense seem to be competing over who can hate and taunt Trump more.

Campbell, for instance, appears out to break Healey’s record of suing Trump some one hundred times in four years when she was attorney general.

Even before he was sworn in as president the second time around, Campbell warned that she would be “on the front lines to protect our fundamental rights” from Trump. She so far she has sued him nine times.

Mayor Wu’s attacks on Trump are a bit more understandable since she is running for reelection and is counting on anti-Trump votes in Boston, no matter how much it will cost the city by challenging Trump’s mandates, particularly on illegal immigration.

And while Gov. Healey, the third spoke in the women’s progressive anti-Trump trifecta, has said she would work with Trump whenever possible, the Trump administration is not listening, doesn’t care or does not believe her.

That is because too many bridges have been burned.

Even as Trump pulled off a remarkable pause and switch turnabout with his tariff crusade, isolated China, and saw the stock market rise to amazing heights, Healey and the Democrats had nothing good to say, except to complain about the “chaos” Trump caused.

Trump could teach Democrats a lesson in diplomacy.

While he isolated China, our main adversary, from the rest of the world and banged it with tariffs, he had kind things to say about his “friend,” Communist Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“XI is a smart guy and we’ll end up making a deal,” Trump said. “Xi is a man who knows exactly what has to be done. He loves his country.”

Contrast that to the names prominent Democrats call Trump, their adversary.

They defiantly call him Hitler, a Nazi, a fascist, a dictator and a king and then expect him to continue shower them, their states, their cities and their interests with money the way hapless Joe Biden did.

Healey, following generally accepted happy news that Trump had paused higher tariffs for most countries, except China, and that countries were lining up for a deal under Trump’s terms, was still critical of him.

“We are still left in a state of chaos and uncertainty,” she said.

But her killer quote came when she added, “At the end of the day, I wish somebody could reach the president and get him to stop, because enough is enough.”

Governor, that is your job.

Veteran political columnist Peter Lucas can be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com

Originally Published: April 14, 2025 at 5:09 AM EDT

Family planning care allows people to make the reproductive health care choices that are right for them. In my early 20s, I was working a very low-paying job and needed a colposcopy after an abnormal pap smear. I was scared and broke, but I was able to access timely, affordable and compassionate care through Planned Parenthood. The results were benign, and after a short course of treatment I resumed my career and my life.

When I decided, 10 years later, to pursue pregnancy, I was able to do so with no negative consequences from my earlier health situation. That care allowed me to plan my family on my terms — and my daughter is now an 18-year-old college freshman, who is excelling in her studies and planning her own career.

Like I did in my 20s, many Mainers face barriers to care, including the financial and logistical challenges of accessing a provider. That’s particularly true in rural areas of the state. What’s more, family planning providers are often the only medical professional some patients see in a year. They play a critical role as a medical line of first defense for thousands of Mainers.

I urge our lawmakers to fund family planning care for all Mainers by passing LD 143, An Act to Improve Women’s Health and Economic Security by Funding Family Planning Services. We are counting on you to safeguard our access to reproductive health care.

Michaela Cavallaro
Portland

Copy the Story Link